Chapter 571: Chapter 571

In any case, the world was wide and weird. Every era and circle bred its freaks. The Ghetto Four were the finest example. It was rumored that the four had opened their doors in Florence, and expanded the ranks of interrogators over these two years.

They continued to supply skilled personnel to the Treatment Ward and Golem Sect, and sometimes aided the Dark Hunter Organization and Black Rain Manor in extracting information. However, interrogators from the Ghetto Four's line were all a bit odd.

Their methods differed wildly from normal professionals, and even rendered prisoners imbecilic. It was said the victims' brains suffered massive shocks, and their worldviews were forcibly twisted. They ended up drooling like sows.

Of course, sensational methods often yielded sensational results. Thus, the Ghetto Four lineage had made a name for itself and had grown to become a faction of its own! Their status among interrogators matched the Golem Sect's current standing in the Covert Martial Arts world! Both were rising with the tide of time.

Cassius stood alone at God's Tears Lake.

Several manuals imbued with strange magic lay open about him, gradually warping the surroundings. Cracks rippled through the air as bizarre hallucinations appeared, luring one to depravity.

Cassius suddenly raised his hand. His domineering aura suppressed the whole lake all at once. Slowly extending his fingers, he began repairing the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex with the complete Qi Engraving Technique. It was a task that would take time.

Five days later, on May 20, a scantily clad, voluptuous beauty walked down a lonely lane at dusk, her body twisting like a water-snake. Dressed like a courtesan, with wanton eyes and seductive features, she seemed to await a destined client.

Tap-tap-tap... tap-tap-tap...

Heavy footsteps sounded distantly along the street. It seemed her destined one had arrived. The alluring woman called out at once, her tone honey-sweet. Sure enough, the steps quickened as the man was drawn closer. His tread sounded urgent, aflame. He was likely a youth or vigorous man with fire in his blood.

Two seconds later, a tall burly figure appeared at the alley mouth. He blocked the slanting sun, casting a broad shadow. She looked up.

He was a musclebound hulk about one hundred and ninety centimeters tall. His shoulders rivalled small tyres, and his frame was brute-bear strong. His palms were broad, the backs veined and palms calloused thick. He looked immensely powerful and vigorous. Sadly, he seemed the sort who stayed up all night.

Red veins ringed his sockets. When his eyes fixed on someone, it felt like he would devour them! Of course, looking at a woman, that "devour" had two possible meanings.

Just then, the sultry beauty tittered suggestively. Clearly her idea of "devour" was a man consuming a woman.

"Am I pretty, baby~? Want some? Special service, only forty imperial coins." She bared a moist tongue and licked her crimson lips.

"You are so beautiful, beautiful enough to intoxicate, to drive one mad..." The brute strode from the corner, blazing eyes locked on her. His lips wriggled as if muttering to himself. "I love you, love you to death. To express the love overflowing my heart, I will dismember you inch by inch! No, no. Dismembering is too wasteful. Better to make you a specimen like the last three dark creatures. Slit you open, clean you inside and out, and keep you by my side forever, day and night..."

His eyes opened wider, about to drop out of their sockets.

"You... you... you're courting death!" The woman froze, then flared in rage. She raised a hand to cover her face, then lowered it. "Heheh, look again. Am I pretty now?"

Right then, sunlight and shade split the lane in half. Suddenly, there in the middle was a hideous visage rivaling a devil from hell. Saw-toothed fangs, a maw covering a third of the face, two black nostril pits where the nose should be, rotting sockets...

It looked like a zombie-like monster. The brute froze at the revolting sight, his body giving a violent shudder. He lowered his head, an ecstatic grin spreading as if beholding a marvel. "Oh, darling, now you're like a dazzling diamond. Nine, even ten times lovelier than my other specimens..."

"I can't wait any longer!" With that, his muscles swelled, nearly splitting his clothes.

He became a vast black blur and lunged at the Charm Demon. At once, fierce combat echoed in the lonely alley. There was once a rather absurd theory in the Covert Martial Arts world. It said fighting was like making love, both venting emotion and desire. It now seemed the saying wasn't false; in fact one could remove the "like." Fighting was making love!

Beast-like roars seeped from the alley.

"I'm sorry, I love you... I'm sorry, I love you... I'm sor—"

Franco never imagined his "lovemaking" would yield vital intelligence. He learned of a dark-creature cluster in the city outskirts from the Charm Demon, with many creatures roaming inside. Franco treated the news as ordinary intel and casually reported it.

Yet within a single day, several powerhouses with dreadful auras came to see him. First, the president of his Covert Martial Arts hobbyist group, then an official member of the Golem Sect. The next three he didn't recognize; he only knew their presence made him shiver. Every cell in his body seemed to scream: run, get away, don't approach!

Now, at 3 p.m. on May 21, Franco saw yet another figure. It was a tall man in a black coat. The three fearsome men he'd met before now stood behind the coat-clad figure in a clearly subordinate posture. Obviously the man was a big shot!

A big shot dressed much like the Golem Sect Master...

Huh? Wait—could this man actually be—?!

Franco's eyes widened, but the coat-man spoke to those beside him. "An unprecedented Calamity Tunnel... No, it can't be called a tunnel any longer. A whole pocket of space has been assimilated, forming a region akin to the ashy land beneath the Eternal Archipelago... Do you know what that means?"

The man in the coat shook his head, looking at the handsome gentleman on his left. "It means the surface world's constraints have been broken. Certain beings beyond any limit can forcibly descend... Or something worse..." Cassius paused, offering no further guesses, but silently grew warier in his heart.

"If the overlap of surface and underworld appears where Blood Vulture Dominator Fist and the Totem King are confronting each other, and a top-ten Ultimate Dark Form manifests, a situation never before seen will arise..."